The arts . . . all rowing together . . .

On Thursday, The Counterpoint Group along with Washington National Opera hosted and moderated a roundtable discussion on local government funding in DC and how in these tough economic times the city could better work with the DC arts community. More than 27 different groups were in attendance, including the Washington Ballet, Washington National Opera, Film Fest DC, the DC Jazz Festival, the Duke Ellington School for the Arts, the National Cherry Blossom Festival, the National Geographic Museum, the Textile Museum and more.

The focus was two fold, a) how to look at the arts as an economic driver in the city and b) how the local government could really refine their processes to help the arts. Councilmember Kwame Brown, the Chairman of the Committee on Economic Development was the guest speaker and pledged to help. The Councilmember opened the discussion by stating, “It’s time to think of the arts as an economic catalyst in Washington”. His sentiments were echoed by Michael Sonnenreich, former President of Washington National Opera: "When the economy is doing well support for the arts is easy, but when it turns south it is much harder. I appreciate the Councilmember's leadership in this issue, both as a DC resident and as a commissioner of the DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities. One of the reasons for the growth our city has seen is due to the growth of our arts community."‪

When the arts community joins together and speaks in one voice, it truly can be a formidable force. The Counterpoint Group has been tasked with putting together several recommendations from this meeting. Please stay tuned for these.

Busy rainy nights in DC. . .

Most evenings in DC are busy. The nation’s capital is a city full of events, and one need simply look through Washington Life or any of the other society magazines to see that there is always something going on, but October 27th was a particularly busy evening. Senator Lisa Murkowski (a wonderful senator) was having a fundraiser, Bill & Melinda Gates were in town to talk about their Living Proof Project and the DC Jazz Festival (formerly known as the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival) was hosting its annual dinner fundraiser.

Turning down an invitation to meet and listen to Bill Gates is not easy, but the Jazz Festival had Paquito D’Rivera (a nine time Grammy winner), Freddy Cole (the brother of Nat Cole) and Edmar Castaneda, an amazing jazz harpist, yes harpist, performing together at the Madison Hotel. Any music lover would have found the decision an easy one, and so, on a rainy Wednesday night, The Counterpoint Group split up, and one member of the team was a lucky beneficiary of amazing jazz while another team member went to hear Bill Gates.

The Living Proof Project is a multimedia initiative intended to highlight successes of U.S.-funded global health initiatives. By reporting success stories back to the people who funded them - American taxpayers and their representatives - the Project hopes to reframe the current global health conversation. Millions of lives have already been transformed and saved with effective, affordable solutions.

The DC Jazz Festival put together a wonderful evening of soup, salmon and chicken, and apple pie, but it all faded away as roughly 100 people listened to Paquito D’Rivera blow his clarinet. The room was full of patrons who were either bobbing their heads or tapping their feet. And while Paquito, a jazz master, is one of the best around, Edmar Casteneda blew everyone away (as Paquito said he would). If you have not heard of Edmar, his new CD is out and is one not to be missed.

DC, a town full of events, doesn’t slow down, even on a rainy Tuesday night, but when you can either attend more than one event, or split the staff and cover all of the events, then that is serendipitous. An evening of jazz and friends is not to be topped by many . . .